Last month, we talked about structure, how the way you organise your business should serve your strategy, not the other way around. But there’s something even more invisible, yet equally critical, shaping whether strategy turns into real results. And that is culture.
Not the posters on the wall, not the values printed in a slide deck but the real culture, the way people behave when no one’s watching. The way decisions get made, how risk is handled, how disagreement is voiced (or not), and how work really gets done across levels and silos.
Here’s the hard truth: many businesses in Thailand are building strong strategies on weak cultural foundations. It doesn’t always show up in the first quarter, but, it surfaces, in missed targets, frustrated talent, and leadership churn.
A Case from the Field
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Earlier this year, I worked with a Thai-headquartered business going through regional expansion. The strategy was bold, clear, and well-resourced. They had the right leaders on paper. But execution kept falling short. Projects slowed, talented people left, leaders began to blame one another.
What became clear after a few leadership interviews was this: the culture hadn't evolved. While the business had outgrown its old ways of working, the behaviours hadn’t caught up. Senior leaders hesitated to challenge decisions. Information was hoarded in pockets. Risk was avoided instead of managed. Despite the CEO’s call for “agility,” most people were waiting for top-down direction, because that’s how things had always been done.
Culture Eats...Everything
We’ve all heard the phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I would go further: culture eats structure, process, and technology too, especially in markets like Thailand, where hierarchy, saving face, and unspoken dynamics play an outsized role.
If you’ve hired top leaders or brought in consultants to reshape strategy, but execution still lags, it may not be the people or the plan. It may be what’s embedded in the organisation’s operating DNA.
And it’s not always bad intentions. It’s often a mismatch between where the company says it’s going and how people are rewarded, trusted, and empowered to get there.
What Culture Misalignment Looks Like
- Teams say "yes" in meetings but avoid taking initiative.
- Conflict is avoided, even when it’s needed.
- People are promoted for loyalty, not capability.
- Leaders fear losing face more than missing targets.
- Collaboration is encouraged in theory, but silos dominate in practice.
If any of these sound familiar, your culture may be quietly holding you back.
Culture Change Is Not Fluffy Work
Changing culture isn’t about slogans, it’s deliberate, leader-led, and often uncomfortable. It starts with modelling, not messaging. Leaders must show, not just tell. Feedback loops must be real. Incentives must reward the behaviour you say you want, not the old habits you say you’ve moved on from.
Most importantly, culture change must align with your strategy, not as an HR project, but as a business imperative.
Final Thought
When strategy doesn’t stick, don’t just rework the plan. Look under the surface. Ask yourself:
- Do we have a culture that enables or obstructs execution?
- Are we reinforcing the behaviour we need to grow, or the behaviour we’re comfortable with?
- Are our leaders truly leading the culture shift, or waiting for others to do it?
Your business can have the best roadmap and talent, but if your culture pulls in a different direction, progress will always be slower than it should be.
Let’s make sure what’s beneath the surface is working just as hard as what’s above it.
